Donald Trump has claimed it is a ‘great day’ for George Floyd, after the US posted better than expected job numbers. ‘Hopefully, George is looking down right now and saying: “This is a great thing happening for our country,”’ the US president said of Floyd, who died while being restrained by police last week
Agency faces criticism over its capacity to de-escalate situations involving racial minorities or those with mental health issues
Police in Canada are facing growing scrutiny after two women – both members of ethnic minorities and both suffering mental health problems – died following encounters with officers.
The deaths come as tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in the US in protest over police violence against racial minorities, prompted by the police killing of George Floyd.
Continue reading...Candidate for ‘cake rep’ sparks anger after comparing killing of black man to flour shortages
An Oxford college has ordered staff and students to undergo training to combat racial bias after an undergraduate made a “joke” drawing a comparison between protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and flour shortages.
The comments, described as racist and trivialising by witnesses, were made during a virtual hustings event by a candidate for the position of “cake rep” – a welfare position on the junior common room committee at Christ Church college.
Continue reading...Delivering the eulogy at a memorial service for George Floyd in Minneapolis, the Reverend Al Sharpton said: 'George Floyd's story has been the story of black folks.' In an emotive speech punctuated by several standing ovations, Sharpton said the sight of diverse crowds of protesters across the world gave him hope that real change would come to the criminal justice system
Continue reading...The police killing of George Floyd continues to ignite protests across the US. On 2 June, the Guardian embedded with activists as they marched through New York City to voice their outrage at Floyd's death and the systematic racism that enabled it
‘It’s not enough to just be better than Trump’ Democratic hopeful told amid anti-racist uprising sparked by killing of George Floyd
Hours before peaceful protests against police brutality were forcibly dispersed so that Donald Trump could pose with a Bible in front of St John’s church, Joe Biden also went to church.
Head bowed, Biden prayed with community leaders at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal church in his home town of Wilmington, Delaware. For days the nation had been convulsed over the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man pinned under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer for a fatal eight minutes and 46 seconds.
Continue reading...In a video for a virtual graduation ceremony at her old high school in LA, the Duchess of Sussex recalled words of advice given by a teacher when she was 15, who said to her: 'Always remember to put another’s needs above your fears.' She told the graduating students: 'I am sorry that in a way we have not gotten the world to a place that you deserve it to be'
Continue reading...Thousands of protesters have marched through central London in an overwhelmingly peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstration that culminated in passionate crowds gathering at the heart of Westminster.
The demonstrators, the vast majority of whom were under 30, chanted: 'No justice, no peace, no racist police', 'I can’t breathe' and 'the UK is not innocent', in a lockdown-defying demonstration that was largely organised through word of mouth and social media away from established anti-racism groups.
Continue reading...Sérgio Camargo, who describes himself as a ‘rightwing black man’, made remark in April, according to recording
The man tasked with promoting black culture by Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been recorded describing the country’s black rights movement as “scum”.
Sérgio Camargo, a fervent Bolsonarista whose appointment as the head of Brazil’s Palmares Cultural Foundation last year caused outrage, made the comments at the end of April, according to a recording obtained by the Estado de São Paulo newspaper.
Continue reading...The racially charged killing of teenager João Pedro Matos Pinto has drawn comparisons to that of George Floyd
João Pedro Matos Pinto was young, gifted and black, and he died last month with an assault rifle shot to his back.
“He had dreams. He wanted to be a top lawyer,” said Neilton da Costa Pinto, the father of the Brazilian teenager, whose shooting during a botched police raid has drawn comparisons to the killing of George Floyd, 9,000km north in Minneapolis.
Continue reading...Canadian prime minister pauses for 20 seconds before saying: ‘We all watch in horror and consternation what’s going on in the United States’
Justin Trudeau, when asked about US president Donald Trump threatening to use the military to quell protests over the police killing of George Floyd, paused for more than 20 seconds before responding that Canadians were observing events in the US with horror.
“We all watch in horror and consternation what’s going on in the United States,” the Canadian prime minister said on Tuesday at a daily news briefing, after a reporter pressed him on Trump’s idea of using soldiers against protesters.
Continue reading...Protesters marched in their thousands in towns and cities across America, part of a wave of demonstrations that have followed the killing of George Floyd
Continue reading...Report identifies major inequalities, with mortality risk higher among BAME people
The inquiry into disparities in the risk and outcomes of Covid-19 commissioned by the Department of Health identifies major inequalities, confirming that – contrary to the popular refrain – we are not all in this together.
Continue reading...Joe Biden has addressed the killing of George Floyd and the protests that his death has sparked. During a speech in Philadelphia, the Democratic presidential candidate said Floyd’s last words, 'I can’t breathe', were a 'wake-up call for our nation'. Biden also sought to draw a clear distinction between himself and Donald Trump, saying the US president was 'part of the problem'
Continue reading...There is something so wounded in American society that basic commitment to justice is not part of the operating code
In 1919, as soldiers returned from the first world war, many white Americans saw African American men in military uniforms for the first time. That sight, and the challenge it posed to the political, social, and economic order, was deeply threatening to them. Groups of armed white men hunted down and slaughtered hundreds of black Americans across the country. The wave of lynchings and race riots came to be known as the Red Summer.
The black community did its best to fight back, without protection from the state. In some cases, police actively participated in the lynchings. The US attorney general, A Mitchell Palmer, claimed that leftwing radicals were behind the uprisings – a false charge and one that further endangered African American lives. Palmer worked for President Woodrow Wilson, an ardent segregationist who screened Birth of a Nation in the White House and praised the Ku Klux Klan even as it deployed terrorism to keep blacks away from the voting booth. Wilson had been silent while whites slaughtered African Americans in East St Louis in 1917, and he did little to nothing in 1919 when they again attacked and killed black people, this time on an even more horrific and grisly scale.
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Bobby Rush, an Illinois congressman and a Civil Rights era leader who co-founded the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers in 1967, responded to Trump’s Rose Garden address with this:
We are living in a police state. https://t.co/YjO8x7QZjt
The Episcopal bishop of DC told The Washington Post that she was “outraged” after the officers cleared peaceful protestors gathered near the White House with tear gas and rubber bullets, to clear the way for Donald Trump to take photos outside St. John’s Church.
The Episcopal bishop of DC – who oversees the DC church Trump just stopped at – tells the @washingtonpost she is "outraged" and that neither she nor the rector was asked or told… “that they would be clearing with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop.." 1/3
"We so disassociate ourselves from the messages of this president. We hold the teachings of our sacred texts to be so so grounding to our lives and everything we do and it is about love of neighbor and sacrificial love and justice." @Mebudde Bishop Mariann Budde 3/3
Continue reading...Speakers highlight racism against Indigenous people and call on Ardern to denounce killing
Tens of thousands of New Zealanders have come out in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, after the death of George Floyd in the US.
At least four solidarity gatherings were held in the country on Monday afternoon, with massive crowds taking to their knees in the Auckland demonstration.
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A striking detail from tonight’s coverage has been reports that as protesters surged towards the White House on Friday night, US president Donald Trump, his wife Melania and son Barron briefly retreated to the Presidential Emergency Operations Centre – a fortified bunker-like structure beneath the residence.
The last time a US head of state was publicly known to have used the bunker was on 11 September, 2001, where senior members of the George W Bush administration spent that day after their west wing offices were evacuated. There are no other public reports of presidents needing to use the area since - the New York Times, which first reported this detail, says “it has not been used much, if at all” since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But it notes the area has since been strengthened to withstand the impact of a passenger jet.
Related: Trump fled to bunker as protests over George Floyd raged outside White House
My colleague Julian Borger in Washington DC has just filed this update on a tense evening the capital.
Multiple fires broke out near the White House late on Sunday evening, as angry protesters gathered in Washington DC for the third night in a row following the death of George Floyd.
Sunday evening’s protests in front of the White House started relatively cheerfully, with a crowd of a few thousand in Lafayette park. Earlier in the day, demonstrators had marched through the city’s downtown, chanting “George Floyd! Say his name!” and “No Justice! No Peace!”
Related: Fires light up Washington DC on third night of George Floyd protests
Continue reading...A sheriff in Michigan on Saturday was welcomed with cheers as he gave a rousing speech before joining demonstrators on a George Floyd protest. 'The only reason we're here is to make sure you have a voice, that's it' said Chris Swanson. 'I want to make this a parade, not a protest.' Swanson then joined the demonstrators after they chanted 'walk with us' at him
Continue reading...Protests over the death of George Floyd and other police killings of black people spread across the country as mayors imposed curfews and governors called in the national guard